Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Please Call Me by My True Names

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow --even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arrivingto be a bud on a Spring branch,to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,learning to sing in my new nest,to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

Please call me by my true names,so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,so I can wake up,and so the door of my heartcan be left open,the door of compassion.

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Grandpa and Sage

It Felt Love

How did the roseEver open its heartAnd give to this worldAll its beauty?

It felt theEncouragement of lightAgainst its being.

Otherwise,We all remainToo frightened.

-Hafiz

About The Encouragement of Light

I started this blog in March 2008, days after an auto accident that killed my 9 month old son (Sage) and my dad (Dennie) and left me with serious injuries, including a broken pelvis. I write to share my exploration of life after losing my child and to process this experience. My husband, Michael, and I find ourselves in the foreign land of grief, sometimes utterly lost, and sometimes awed by unexpected beauty.